The Hill - Dems Ask Obama to Put Woman on $20 bill

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Eight senators are trying to build pressure on President Obama to put a woman on the $20 bill.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Angus King (I-Maine), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) urged the president this week to "begin the process" of selecting a woman to replace President Andrew Jackson on the bill

"For more than 200 years, our paper currency has been reserved exclusively for men who have shaped our history," the senators said in a letter. "That's why the time has come to honor the contributions that women have made to our society, and reaffirm that women will be an important part of our future."

Shaheen's office shared the letter, which was sent on Thursday to Obama and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, on Twitter Friday.

The letter is the latest step in a campaign to get a woman on the $20 bill.

Shaheen introduced legislation earlier this year that would direct the administration to create a panel that would make recommendations on who should be featured.

But the senators noted in their letter to Obama that "it is fully within the administration's power to convene such a panel without Congressional direction and we encourage you to do so as soon as possible."

Shaheen has also backed the "Women on 20s campaign" which announced in May that abolitionist Harriet Tubman had won its online poll of who should replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, backed the selection in a tweet, calling it "awesome, well deserved -- and about time."